Situation With Ukraine Nuclear Plant Is "Very Fluid": State Department

A senior U.S. diplomat on Wednesday called the situation with Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant "very fluid," urging for access to the facility, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"There’s concerns about safety and also safeguards... Getting an understanding of what’s happening at that site is really the most important thing, and that situation remains right now," Bonnie Jenkins, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, said in response to TURAN's question.

Jenkins was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the State Department's New York Foreign Press Center, on the Tenth Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) Review Conference.

Early this week, secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke at the Review Conference about what he called "a critical moment" in efforts to keep the world safe from nuclear threats.

"There are credible reports, including in the media today, that Russia is using this plant as the equivalent of a human shield, but a nuclear shield in the sense that it's firing on Ukrainians from around the plant and of course, the Ukrainians cannot and will not fire back lest there be a terrible accident involving a nuclear plant," Blinken added, saying that it "is the height of irresponsibility," Blinken said.

When asked by TURAN how Russia could be held accountable, Jenkins said, the real focus "should be how do we get access to that, because that is fundamental to all of this is making sure that we can understand what’s going on at the site, to make sure that there’s safety and there’s safeguards that we are actually implementing there."

Washington is committed to the principles of nonproliferation and security in the field of nuclear development and encourages other states to do the same,  Jenkins said.

She also added that the non-transparent discussions on these issues, in particular between Beijing and Moscow, are cause for concern.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.